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enWhy Assange And WikiLeaks Have Won This Roundhttps://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/why-assange-and-wikileaks-have-won-round
<div class="node-media"></div><p>The odd thing about Wikileaks is that their success has been assured, not by what they leaked, though there is some important information there, but by their enemies.</p>
<p>The massive and indiscriminate overreaction by both government and powerful corporate actors has ensured this, and includes but is not nearly limited to:</p><p><a href="https://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/why-assange-and-wikileaks-have-won-round" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Julian AssangeWikiLeaksThu, 09 Dec 2010 16:00:14 +0000Ian Welsh42207 at https://crooksandliars.comPray For The Frenchhttps://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/pray-french
<div class="node-media"></div><p>In news you may not have heard, the French have been protesting a bill to raise the retirement age in France from 60 to 62. And by protesting, I don't mean just showing up for one day. French President <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11603953">Sarkozy has struck back:</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Clashes have broken out outside a major oil refinery in France after riot police moved in to clear strikers who blockaded the terminal for 10 days.</p>
<p>Two people were hurt outside the Grandpuits refinery east of Paris, one of 12 facilities affected by strikes.</p>
<p>President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered the authorities to lift the blockade earlier this week after thousands of petrol stations across France ran dry.</p>
<p id="story_continues_1">The Senate will vote later on the pension reform that sparked the action.</p>
<p>Ministers said the bill would clear its last major hurdle in a matter of hours, after the Senate was asked to halt debate on hundreds of opposition amendments and hold a single vote on all of them.</p>
<p>Changes to the retirement and pension age could become law next week, once they pass the committee stage and a final vote is held in both houses of parliament.</p></blockquote>
<p>Notice something here: the protesters are doing economically damaging things. They aren't just showing up in the mall, waving some flags, making some speeches and wandering off.</p>
<p>Notice also, that Sarkozy is still going to pass his bill.</p><p><a href="https://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/pray-french" target="_blank">read more</a></p>FranceRetirement AgeSarkozySat, 23 Oct 2010 21:00:12 +0000Ian Welsh40944 at https://crooksandliars.comTax Cuts For The Rich Create Jobs Outside The UShttps://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/tax-cuts-rich-create-jobs-outside-us
<div class="node-media"></div><p>A standard right wing talking point is that tax cuts for the rich and corporations create jobs.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9e6a18ec-c019-11df-b77d-00144feab49a.html">This is, actually, true. They create jobs overseas.</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The tax cuts’ two bills, in 2001 and 2003 – changed laws so that personal income tax rates were reduced, exemptions for the Alternative Minimum Tax increased, and dividend and capital gains taxes also cut.</p>
<p>Yet in the debate, it seems of no moment to either side whether the tax cuts were effective in achieving their goal of spurring business investment and making the US economy more competitive.</p>
<p>Our own examination of US non-residential investment indicates that the reduction in capital gains tax rates failed to spur US business investment and failed to improve US economic competitiveness.</p>
<p>The 2000s – that is, the period immediately following the Bush tax cuts – were the weakest decade in US postwar history for real non-residential capital investment.</p>
<p>Not only were the 2000s by far the weakest period, but the tax cuts did not even curtail the secular slowdown in the growth of business structures.</p>
<p>http://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/tax-cuts-rich-create-jobs-outside-us</p><p><a href="https://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/tax-cuts-rich-create-jobs-outside-us" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Bush Tax CutsoffshoringtradeMon, 20 Sep 2010 15:30:50 +0000Ian Welsh39976 at https://crooksandliars.comWhat Can Obama Really Do?https://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/what-could-obama-have-done-and-what-can-
<div class="node-media"></div><p>A zombie argument is going around about why Obama hasn't accomplished liberal and progressive ends to the extent many would have liked him to:</p>
<blockquote><p>Obama can't do anything because he needs 60 votes in Congress and he doesn't have them because Republicans and Dems like Lieberman and Nelson won't vote for his programs.</p></blockquote>
<p>This argument is misleading in one sense and incorrect in another. It is misleading in that it misrepresents how things get done in Congress. It is incorrect in that many liberal policies do not require the consent of Congress.</p>
<p>Let's examine the misconceptions this zombie argument is built on.</p>
<p><strong>Negotiation 101</strong></p>
<p>Let's look at how things get done in Congress. Obama apologists make the excuse that Obama couldn't have passed a larger stimulus because he was forced to reduce the stimulus by $100 billion as it was. This line of reasoning demonstrates a misunderstanding of how negotiation (or Congress) works.</p>
<p>If Obama had wanted a $1.2 trillion stimulus, say, he should have asked for a $1.6 trillion stimulus. Then "moderate" Republicans and Dems could have negotiated him down $400K. This is basic negotiation, which anyone who has ever negotiated in a third world bazaar knows—you start off with an offer far higher (or lower) than what you're willing to accept, and leave room for the inevitable haggling.</p><p><a href="https://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/what-could-obama-have-done-and-what-can-" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Barack Obama. liberal valuesDADTHabeas CorpusHAMPjob stimulusMon, 30 Aug 2010 21:00:11 +0000Ian Welsh39408 at https://crooksandliars.comThe Right Thing To Dohttps://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/right-thing-do
<div class="node-media"></div><p>What makes me saddest of all things in the world is this: the vast majority of the time the right thing to do morally is the right thing to do in terms of broad self-interest, and yet we don’t believe that and we do the wrong thing, thinking we must, thinking that we’re making the “hard decisions”.</p><p><a href="https://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/right-thing-do" target="_blank">read more</a></p>EconomicsFinancial CrisismoralityprosperitywarWar on DrugsThu, 26 Aug 2010 22:00:00 +0000Ian Welsh39310 at https://crooksandliars.comIsraeli PM Netanyahu's Unguarded Talk On Video: How I Destroyed The Oslo Accords, And How Easily Americans Are Manipulatedhttps://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/israeli-pm-natanyahu-america-easily-move
<div class="node-media"></div><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/z6KLFrye9Xk?fs=1&amp;amp;hl=en_US" width="400" height="321"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/z6KLFrye9Xk?fs=1&amp;amp;hl=en_US" /><param name="type" value="application/x-shockwave-flash" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="width" value="400" /><param name="height" value="321" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /></object><p>
One of the most important videos you've never seen is this one, in which Benjamin Netanyahu, 9 years ago -- thinking there is no record -- explains his actually strategy to inflict pain on the Palestinians. He also describes how easy it is to manipulate the US, and how he made sure that the Oslo Accords would mean nothing.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.redress.cc/palestine/jcook20100724">First he says that the plan for the Palestinians is to:</a></p>
<blockquote><p>hit them hard. Not just one hit... but many painful [hits], so that the price will be unbearable. The price is not unbearable, now. A total assault on the Palestinian Authority. To bring them to a state of panic that everything is collapsing ... fear that everything will collapse... this is what we'll bring them to...</p></blockquote>
<p>The woman Natanyahu is speaking to wonders if the world won't object to what Israel is doing to the occupied Palestinians (she uses the word occupiers herself. He says the world will say nothing, just that Israel is defending itself. As for the US...</p><p><a href="https://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/israeli-pm-natanyahu-america-easily-move" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Benjamin NetanyahufearIsraelIsraelismilitary basesPalestiniansThu, 19 Aug 2010 17:00:48 +0000Ian Welsh39117 at https://crooksandliars.comSocial Security Trustees Report: No Social Security Crisishttps://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/social-security-trustees-report-no-socia
<div class="node-media"></div><p><a href="http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/pr/trustee10-pr-alt.pdf">Social Security Trustees report that social security will be able to make full payments until 2037</a>(pdf). Tax receipts will dip below outlays before then, but this is precisely why the Social Security program has taken in more money than it needed, so that it could handle baby boomer retirement and increased life spans.</p>
<p>Any projection which goes out 27 years is so incredibly reliant on the embedded assumptions about growth, employment and lifespans that it amounts to a fiction. It is, at best, a guess.</p>
<p>Increase growth by just a little bit and the entire "problem" goes away. Get rid of the taxation cap so the rich are not capped in what they pay and the entire problem goes away. Assume higher employment, and the entire problem goes away. Assume a reduction in inequality, and the problem goes away.</p>
<p>The US has a number of problems which are at or near crisis, such as employment, inequality and healthcare costs, to name just a few. Social Security is not one of them. It isn't even close, and politicians and billionaires like Pete Peterson who are trying to gin up a crisis should be ashamed of themselves.</p>
<p>If they want the US budget more in order they should look at health care, where single payer could cut costs by at least a third, and at the military, where real spending has doubled since the end of the Clinton administration.</p>
<p>Or they should work on increasing employment and increasing wages for ordinary people. That's a crisis.</p>baby boomerBillionaireseconomygininequalityPete Petersonsingle payerSocial SecurityThu, 05 Aug 2010 22:00:45 +0000Ian Welsh38817 at https://crooksandliars.comNetroots Schizohttps://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/netroots-schizo
<div class="node-media"></div><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/so-Uuooz-Zo&amp;amp;hl=en_US&amp;amp;fs=1" width="400" height="241"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/so-Uuooz-Zo&amp;amp;hl=en_US&amp;amp;fs=1" /><param name="type" value="application/x-shockwave-flash" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="width" value="400" /><param name="height" value="241" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /></object><p>
I had a good time in Vegas, so I didn't spend a huge amount of time at NN, but I did spend enough time to take in the mood, and it was schizophrenic. About half the people there are some combination of angry, disappointed and bitter with Democrats in general and Obama in particular. </p>
<p>This group sees him as not a heck of a lot better than George Bush, and in fact the Democrat who extended some of Bush's worst policies, especially in civil liberties. This includes a lot of feminists (angry at what they see as betrayals on abortion), many Hispanics angry at the continued harsh enforcement of immigration laws, gays who feel Obama has betrayed clear promises on gay rights, anti-war activists saddened by escalation in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and a mishmash of folks who think health care reform was a dog's breakfast and that the general way the economy and financial reform has been handled is a disgrace.</p><p><a href="https://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/netroots-schizo" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Civil LibertiesDemocratic PartydisgraceescalationFDRFeministsgeorge bushhealth care reformHispanicsLiberalsNetroots Nation 10ObamapapprogressivesTue, 27 Jul 2010 23:00:19 +0000Ian Welsh38625 at https://crooksandliars.comOf Course The Political Class Doesn't Listen To Ordinary Citizens. Why Would They?https://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/course-political-class-doesnt-listen-ord
<div class="node-media"></div><p><a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/july_2010/68_say_political_class_doesn_t_care_what_most_americans_think">So, apparently 68% of Americans think that the political class doesn't listen to them</a>. After TARP, where calls were running between 100:1 to 1200:1 against, passed, the failure of Congress to get out of Iraq after 2006, the failure of the 70%+ supported public option, and on and on, the only mysterious thing is <a href="http://www.americablog.com/2010/07/poll-68-of-americans-say-political.html">why it's only 68%</a>.</p>
<p>But why should the political class listen? They get the majority of their reelection funds from corporations and the rich. Their spouses and children are given good jobs by such donors, and if ordinary people do actually ever vote them out for not looking after their interests, well, as long as they went down doing what they were supposed to, they'll still be very well taken care of.</p>
<p>Get elected, do what your corporate masters tell you to, and you'll never ever have to worry about money ever again.</p>
<p>Only a sucker or an idealist would do anything else.</p>
<p>This is the fundamental problem with the US. There is no accountability for the political class. They and those who take care of them have made sure of it. Go to war with a nation which has never attacked the US based on a big lie propaganda campaign, or spy on millions of Americans, or torture, or deregulate the economy so that Wall Street can cash in and crash the economy, and hey, so what, there's no cost for you.</p>AccountabilityCongresscorporationsCorruptionCorruptiondonorselectionsFailurerasmussenTARPWall StreetMon, 19 Jul 2010 22:00:47 +0000Ian Welsh38440 at https://crooksandliars.comBlaming The Blogosphere For Democratic Failureshttps://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/blaming-blogosphere-democratic-failures
<div class="node-media"></div><p>So. In response to <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39772.html">a Politico piece in which the authors and White House whine about the left wing blogosphere not being happy with all of Obama's "wins"</a> and not caring about potential losses in 2010, <a href="http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/07/obamas-record">Kevin Drum writes:</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Here's the good news: this record of progressive accomplishment officially makes Obama the most successful domestic Democratic president of the last 40 years. And here's the bad news: this shoddy collection of centrist, watered down, corporatist sellout legislation was all it took to make Obama the most successful domestic Democratic president of the last 40 years. Take your pick.</p></blockquote>
<p>Here's the thing. What matters is whether policy works. It does not matter if what Obama did was more left wing than anything that's been done in a while (though in absolute terms I would argue it mostly wasn't left wing, the health care plan, for example, was essentially a Republican plan from the 90s), what matters is if it was left wing enough (big enough stimulus, smart enough health care plan) to improve people's lives enough that they noticed.</p>2010 electionBarack Obamahealth care reformKrugmanleft winglegislationlossesMedia CriticismPoliticostiglitzstimulusStimulus BillwhineWhite HouseFri, 16 Jul 2010 13:00:00 +0000Ian Welsh38399 at https://crooksandliars.com